ocd here. Oil level high. OK to leave it?

There are literally HUNDREDS of thousands of 4Runners, FJCs, and Tacomas driving around with overfilled oil in their GR engines because Toyota dealers are complete fucking lazy morons and not a single one has failed because of this.

Because you literally can’t kill this engine with too much oil.

Is it a bad practice? Yes.

Will it affect anything? No.

 

LOL what a great thread. I've never "liked" so many comments in so short a time. Everyone's already said everything that can be said. But I can't help piling on

1. Oil level is notoriously hard to check on these vehicles, but your repeated and careful measurements indicate the dealer overfilled.
2. It's probably not anywhere near fatal, but it's also not correct.
3. It's not worth the hassle of trying to have the dealer fix it. They can't be trusted. And they won't learn from this.
4. Make yourself feel better by draining a bit of oil from the pan and then forget about it. Draining a spurt of oil won't hurt and may help. Or do your own complete oil change so you know everything is done perfectly.

 

I am bringing it back in because of the noisy brake issue so I will address it with them at that point. But I hear what you are saying. It is what drove me to making this post.

Thanks for the input! The amount seems like a bit more than "a little". I don't think its catastrophic but I also don't think its really done right either. I expressed my meticulous nature to the gentleman when I brought it in. I expressed my request for no car wash either. He got what sort of person I was, but it still happened.

I am not a fan of the free services either. I did it for warranty purposes, and more realistically because I don't have a "guy" that I know will do a good job on servicing the vehicle. The two other dealers relatively close by have been horrible.

Hi. Thanks for the post! I am confident I checked the level correctly. Reads the same no matter how I do it. It isn't a smidge high, it is a good amount over. More than anything I want to bring the error to their attention while I am bringing it in for brakes. I can drain it myself, buuut not without first letting them see and know about especially with all the great insight in this thread.

 

Thanks everyone for the opinions, facts, and links. You guys are great. Really great forum. Rare to find one like this.

I am scheduled to go in on Monday about the brake clunk issue and have also notated the oil over filling. Its a secondary issue for now, and will remain that way depending on how they react. I guess I will report back if there is anything worth reporting or if anyone is interested. haha thanks again!

 

I would like to hear what they say about the overfill. My guess is they will say thats normal, and to not worry about it (typical). Anyone else have one? Lol

 

haha ok. I will report back tomorrow then. I'd laugh if they told me the max fill line wasn't a real max fill line. Let's hope that isn't their approach.

 

Update. Back to dealer. Wait an hour. Advisor says 'two techs looked at it and the level is correct'. I proceed to laugh. Advisor is a nice guy. Walks out to my car with me, checks the oil. Proceeds to wipe excess above max line off with finger, says 'yup, its right at the max. spot on'. I disagree. He rechecks a few times. Same results. Over the line. Says its ok. He calls manager over. Manager checks and agrees WITH ME. States its over the max. Manager doesn't speak to me. Advisor says he will have it taken care of. Another hour later, car is back to me. Yay!

Get home. Check 5 minutes after sitting... well over the max. Wait a couple of hours recheck, still over. It looks like no one touched it, to be honest. I call Advisor, he says its a weird mystery why its reading above the max. Manager just called me and said to come back whenever and he will have it taken care of. Wow.

 

yeah, unfortunately this is the point many of us were making. Dealers usually suck, they aren’t likely to fix this sort of thing, and they don’t tend to learn from it. Just gotta handle it yourself. Or find a good trusted local mechanic. There are still good ones around.

 

So, did the dealer tell you their remedy, that they drained some amount of oil? Was it documented on the work sheet?

 

Yes, would be interesting to know what exactly you were told -- and what the paperwork says. But the bottom line is that a lot of these dealer service departments can't be trusted. And that includes when they're telling you what you want to hear. It's even odds that the manager was just trying to placate you. Even if he genuinely agreed, do you think he's gonna call a big ol' team meeting and say, "Hey fellas, we got a real issue here, gotta stop overfilling the crankcase. This could cause people's engines to fail at 120,000 miles instead of 220,000 miles, and that would be, you know, morally wrong -- and besides, then they'd all come back and complain later and then what we gonna do?!" At which point everyone would fall into fits of knee-slapping guffaws.

The reality is that most people in this manager's situation just want everyone to stop bothering them. They don't want to alienate the people who report to them. They don't want to piss off the customers who come to them. Job 1 is to smooth everything over -- internally and externally.

Further, placating you is gonna seem easier than fixing the systemic problem he has on his hands. He knows that 99% of his customers won't ever notice an overfill, that 99.9% will never come back to him with a related engine problem, and that 99.99999% won't be able to prove the engine problem was the fault of his service department. So in just placating you he's actually acting rationally. Dealerships are about the last place in the world to go in search of models of ethical behavior.

Your situation suggests that one or more or all the techs there are misinformed about how much oil to put in a 4Runner. Or they are using a bulk-oil fill system that no one has bothered to calibrate properly. Or, to save time, it's the practice there not to wait until all the oil drains out. What are the odds any of that's going to change, if allowing that sort of thing is the culture of this service department to begin with?

This is why, again, that most of us have been urging you not to rely on the dealer to fix your problem -- and whether it does or not, to not expect them to learn from it and change their ways.

 

One more thing, just to beat this horse into the ground, I suspected that when I got my last dealer free oil change the tech didn’t replace the filter.
The time from dropping off the truck, writing up the order, driving the truck into the service bay, waiting in the lobby, getting the completed paperwork, and getting back into the drivers seat was 20 minutes. Hmmm?

I believe there’s about 1/3 to 1/2 quart in the filter/housing. I could see pumping in a measured 6.5 quarts could result in the kind of overfill the OP saw. (Although mine was OK).

 

I am really surprised at how Toyota does things. Haven't had service this poor... ever. I wanted service records so I took it in. If I had a good reliable independent, I'd go that route. Looks like I have to do it myself from now on.

Verbally said it would be adjusted. After I realized it wasn't handled I told him the only remedy is to fully drain and refill with new oil and filter. I was given no paperwork. I was excited to get out of there. 2 minutes down the road I called the advisor and asked him. He said he would email me. No such email has come. I can already guess it will be some real general comments to cover themselves.

Spot on. I actually wrote all the details about the conversations had. Thats it I believe. Manager said to come by and he would personally take it in and wait and check it himself. He was "nice enough" but no urgency and like you said, no one really notices are complains. I am surprised, but also not really.

I stand by my assessment that they didn't fully drain it. Buuut now I am even more excited thinking that they may not have changed the filter. Incredible stuff. Well, jokes on you. You waited 20 minutes. I got to wait a total of about 3.5 hours over 2 days! For an oil change and tire rotation. Haha! Clown show.

Jokes aside, I am pretty let down. I have a feeling I have to press them hard about paperwork, and before I logged on now I was "let it go" about that too. Now I am not so sure, and am considering going full on Michael Douglas Falling Down on them for proper paperwork. Not sure yet. Sigh.